ConflictBarometer_2015
ConflictBarometer_2015
ConflictBarometer_2015
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ASIA AND OCEANIA<br />
PPP members were killed in a targeted attack. Throughout August,<br />
three MQM members were killed in Karachi, with MQM<br />
parliamentary leader Rashid Godil together with one relative<br />
being injured and a civilian being killed. In September, at<br />
least one PPP and four MQM members were killed and several<br />
suspects, including MQM activists, were arrested in Karachi.<br />
On October 29, members of PPP and MQM clashed using<br />
clubs and bricks in the city Sukkur, Sindh, leaving at least<br />
two people injured. Two days later, one MQM member was<br />
shot dead in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Town, Karachi. On November<br />
13, two attacks with explosives took place in Lyari. The first<br />
targeted a PPP election office, while the second left at least<br />
six PPP members injured.<br />
As a part of the government's intervention efforts, ''Operation<br />
Karachi'' had been launched in September 2013 ''to<br />
fight terrorist and criminal activities'' in the area. On March<br />
11, Sindh Rangers raided the ''Nine-Zero'' headquarters of<br />
the MQM in Karachi. One MQM member was killed and four<br />
high-profile functionaries arrested. In April, Sindh Rangers<br />
shot dead three allegedly hired gunmen with ties to MQM. On<br />
July 17, Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah extended<br />
the Sindh Rangers' stationing by one year. According to the<br />
Rangers' spokesperson, the paramilitary unit killed at least<br />
350 ''terrorists'' and arrested over 10,000 suspects since the<br />
start of the operation until July 8. aho<br />
PAKISTAN (INTER-ISLAMIST RIVALRY)<br />
Intensity: 3 | Change: | Start: 2010<br />
Conflict parties:<br />
Conflict items:<br />
TTP vs. LI vs. TNSM vs. AMNAM<br />
system/ideology, subnational predominance<br />
The violent crisis over ideology and subnational predominance<br />
in Pakistan's northwest between the Islamist militant<br />
groups Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Tehreek-e-Nafaz-e-<br />
Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TNSM), and Amr bil Maroof wa Nahi<br />
Anil Munkar (AMNAM) continued.<br />
However, in the course of the year, several Islamist groups<br />
also allied with the TTP. On March 12, leaders of Jamaat-ul-<br />
Ahrar (JuA) led by Khalid Khorasani and the militant group<br />
Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) led by Mangal Bagh pledged allegiance<br />
to TTP in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. JuA had<br />
been formed in 2014 after several factions had seceded from<br />
the TTP due to internal disagreements [→ Pakistan (Islamist<br />
militant groups)]. According to TTP's spokesperson Muhammad<br />
Khurasani, three outfits, namely Qari Ihsan Group, Shikari<br />
Group, and Abdus Samad Group united with the TTP in South<br />
Waziristan Agency, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)<br />
on May 6. The groups promised to abide by the central command<br />
of TTP's leader Mullah Fazlullah.<br />
Throughout the year, at least seven people were killed and<br />
three were injured in clashes between militant groups. On<br />
April 6, militants shot dead two members of TTP in Kurram<br />
Agency, FATA. One week later, a clash between AMNAM and LI<br />
members in Khyber Agency, FATA, left five militants dead and<br />
three injured. Among the dead were LI commander Shahmat<br />
Khan and two AMNAM commanders.<br />
In May, the imprisoned leader of TNSM, Maulana Sufi Mohammad,<br />
issued an informal decree challenging the Muslim<br />
denomination of TTP members for not fulfilling the ''Prophet's<br />
definition.'' Furthermore, he advised his supporters to boycott<br />
the group. The statement was written on 12/20/14,<br />
shortly after an Army Public School in Peshawar had been attacked<br />
by TTP militants [→ Pakistan (Islamist militant groups)].<br />
sma<br />
PAKISTAN (ISLAMIST MILITANT GROUPS)<br />
Intensity: 5 | Change: | Start: 2001<br />
Conflict parties:<br />
Conflict items:<br />
TTP, LI, al-Qaeda, Haqqani Network<br />
vs. government<br />
system/ideology, national power<br />
The war over national power and the orientation of the<br />
political system between various Islamist militant groups<br />
such as al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Islam (LI), the Haqqani Network,<br />
and, most prominently, the Tehrik-e-Taliban (TTP), on the one<br />
hand, and the government, supported by the USA, on the<br />
other, continued. On March 14, LI announced to join the TTP<br />
[→ Pakistan (inter-Islamist violence)]. By August, the Islamist<br />
Movement of Uzbekistan's leader Usmon Ghazi had taken<br />
an oath of allegiance to the so-called Islamic State [→ Syria,<br />
Iraq et al. (IS)]. No attacks by the group were reported in<br />
<strong>2015</strong> in Pakistan. The conflict claimed the lives of at least<br />
3,000 people, with US-operated drone-strikes killing at least<br />
60 militants of various networks, for example of the TTP and<br />
al-Qaeda, in North and South Waziristan Agency, Federally<br />
Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) [→ USA Pakistan]. As of<br />
July, the number of IDPs figured up to more than 1.5 million.<br />
The heaviest clashes between security forces and militants<br />
occurred in FATA, albeit the number of attacks in other<br />
provinces increased. Militants mainly targeted key army<br />
and police installations. For example, on September 18, 14<br />
TTP militants with automatic rifles and light weapons such<br />
as RPGs stormed into a Pakistan Air Force (PAF) camp in<br />
Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkwa (KP), killing 23 PAF members,<br />
three army personnel, and three civilians. All attackers were<br />
killed. Militants also targeted politicians. For example, on<br />
May 31, three TTP militants killed PLM-N party member Rana<br />
Shamshad and two civilians in Gujranwala, Punjab state. On<br />
August 16, alleged LI militants conducted a suicide attack on<br />
Punjab Home Minister Shuja Khanzada at his political office<br />
in Attock district, Punjab, killing him and 16 others.<br />
Throughout the year, various militant groups, most prominently<br />
TTP, conducted at least 20 attacks on polio health<br />
workers mainly in remote areas of KP and FATA as well as<br />
Karachi, Sindh province. For example, on February 17, a<br />
health worker and three other people were found dead in<br />
Balochistan province after having been abducted four days<br />
earlier. A month later, three people, among them two health<br />
workers, were shot dead in Mansehra city, KP. Since 2012, Islamist<br />
militant groups targeted polio workers, accusing them<br />
of being spies and sickening and sterilizing locals through<br />
vaccinations.<br />
On January 6, the two legislative houses of Pakistan passed<br />
the 21st constitutional amendment and an amendment to<br />
the Pakistan Army Act, setting up speedy-trial military courts<br />
for two years and extending their jurisdiction to terrorismrelated<br />
offences. The measure was part of a national action<br />
plan to combat terrorism, which had been initiated by the<br />
government after the December 2014 attack on the Army<br />
152